Inside Canfranc's ghostly abandoned train station, once used by Nazis

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Sitting impressively on the French-Spanish border was once one of the world’s most glamourous train stations. After years of neglect, what was once nicknamed “the titanic of the mountains”, is now a haunting reminder of the past.

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After five years of construction, the Canfranc International Station was finally complete in 1928. It was envisioned as a major crossing point in the Spanish Pyrenees on the border with France, with its incredible 365 windows, hundreds of doors and platforms more than 200 meters long.

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Despite being more on the Spanish border, Canfranc and its population of 500 were considered French territory, and during its reign became a neighbour for French staff and their children.

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So how did such an extravagant station high up on a mountainside village become abandoned?

At the turn of the 20th century, the French and Spanish authorities had plans to open the borders through the Pyrenees to allow more international trade and travel, which would highly benefit the Canfranc.

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However, the ambitious plan didn’t quite achieve what was intended. Following the crash of Wall Street of 1929 and the fact that goods weren’t being transported quickly enough, the station was only seeing as little as 50 passengers per day.

Canfranc proved to be incredibly vital at the start of WWII, allowing thousands of Jewish refugees to flee through occupied Europe.

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In 1940, everything changed.Spanish Dictator Francisco Franco was photographed guiding Hitler along one of the Canfranc’s sprawling platforms. Eventually, the Nazi leader took charge of the station, adorning it with Swastika flags and used the train lines to smuggle tonnes of gold his army had stolen from around Europe.

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Ironically, once the war was over, Nazi war criminals used the station to avoid being captured.

Eventually, the French lost interest in the Canfranc and allowed it to deteriorate. When a train derailed on the French side in 1970, the line was officially abandoned.

Despite becoming a thriving hub for overgrown nature, moss, and graffiti, over 120,000 Spanish tourists visited the haunting Canfranc site between 2016 and 2017. As a result, Spanish local officials have revealed their plans to restore the decaying structure to its former glory.

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The project is estimated to be up and running within the next five years and will cost almost $3 million to repair.